My dream wedding would be at Presqu'Isle, a weekend in the country away from the city. Closest friends and family filling the bedrooms and beautiful spaces of the main house, lazy meals al fresco surrounded by bistro lights and lanterns. An elegant long dinner table among the grove of tress leading to the pond. Dancing under the stars as white natural table linens billow in the breeze. And maybe even resident dogs George and Gracie milling about among the party goers like the socialites they are. Nature would reward us with a fiery sunset reflected in the lake, turning the crystal and silver on the tables into glowing embers of orange and red. Laughs would echo across the surrounding fields as guests trip up the lantern lined path back to the main house for a nightcap and a relishing of the day's festivities.

At the end of summer, Presqu'Isle hosted an afternoon garden party to introduce their space to the community and demonstrate how the house and grounds might transform for an intimate weekend wedding. Proprietors Josh and Aaron are the consummate hosts, (Virginia's very own Beekman Boys). No detail is overlooked in their careful restoration and revival of this 19th century manor house, and their warmth and kindness makes working together a joy. I'm excited to work in this space again and can't say enough kind things about Josh and Aaron and this wonderful world they've created on 20 acres in Remington, VA.

The floral arrangements for the garden party were inspired by the late summer peach, and brought in all the fuzzy peach tones of apricot, pink, and orange through garden roses, marigolds, zinnias, carnations, and of course local Virginia peaches picked the day prior by me and Paul. (My attempts to convince the peach orchard owner to let me cut down full branches was met with disgust, so we settled for peaches sans branches and were able to sneak a few tree leaves into the bottom of our buckets.)

The porch overlooking the lawn featured local Virginia grown peegee hydrangeas. All the greenery and foliage was foraged from the property.

If you'd like to visit Josh and Aaron and the beautiful Presqu'Isle, their grounds will be open to self-guided tours beginning in May - find out more details here: http://www.presquisle.com/visit/.

Long after the party guests left, the team shared a bottle of wine at our pond-side table and Paul caught a few more casts of the rod before the sun disappeared. These are just a few iphone shots I managed to grab:

Today is the Women's March on Washington, along with hundreds of other sister marches throughout the world. I thought this day of empowerment for women would be a good day to share the story of a fellow female artist and entrepreneur, Rebekah Murray, and her new venture Virginia Dare Dress Company. We had the honor of collaborating on their official launch party last October, along with many other women who lent their diverse talents to celebrating VDDCo on a sunny and crisp fall day in Virginia.

What I love about Rebekah's dress company is that it was born from her frustration of being unable to find what she was looking for - so she decided to make it herself. Wild Green Yonder was born in the same way, and I have a huge amount of respect for anyone that takes it upon themselves to personally solve the problem - even if that means committing to years of researching, learning, and practicing.

...I’ve spent years studying design, production, pattern making, and fabric sourcing, as well as learning what we as women want to say about ourselves. Our clothing has a significant effect on us and helps form our identity and community.

Slowly I built this concept of a company that inspires others to their more beautiful potential.

— Rebekah J. Murray

Rebecca Gallop of A Daily Something styled a beautiful food display (including the most delicious bread I've ever tasted from Knead and Know) - she also styled wonderful little vignette moments throughout the party which were so fun to walk around and discover. The lovely and talented Paula Bartosiewicz took all these wonderful photos (I even snuck one in below of Team Tran - we actually got to be guests for a change!)

I teamed up with my favorite creative collaborator Colleen West (#wildwest) to create the greenery and floral backdrop for the stars of the party - the 3 dress prototypes. We built a wooden framework covered with chicken wire and then stuffed it full of greens and roses to create a soft framing around the dresses. We also added flowers to several of the vignettes throughout the party - including the dessert gazebo (everyone needs a gazebo devoted to dessert - seriously.)

I'm so excited to see VDDCo's very first collection heading into production now and can't wait to see what's next. You can view all the collection details (and even preorder your favorites!) via the Indie Go Go campaign here.